Base/ Walkway Progress

I had some issues to start the week, with all that is going on in the world, soon enough I knew we would be in lock down. While university has no official closed due to the pandemic currently happening, I asked an amazing friend of mine to take my model box base/ walk ways home with them before I could collect my work. The following day I was able go and collect my base.

To start progress on the bottom, I used 'Mod Podge' Matte- Mat- Mate as a base coat. I brushed this on in one layer across all of the surfaces of wood I would be painting. I did this to stop the wood from sucking up the moisture from the paint. This also made my paint go much further, than if I hadn't done this step.

Once the base coat had dried completely, I mixed up a dark brown/green shade that I was happy with to use as a base colour of the walk ways and sewer canal walls.

Colour made from- Burnt Umber, Primary Yellow, Orange, Spectrum Red, Primary Blue, and Cadmium Green.

Again, I let this dry and then mixed up some sand I had at home from an old fish tank, mixed this with a watered down PVA glue and applied it with a plastic flexible pallet knife. I applied this to all of the tops of the walkways evenly to try and create the first layer of texture.

I found a texturing acrylic by Vallejo called Thick Mud Acrylic. I used the same material on my prototype at the beginning of term, which I really liked the overall look of the surface. It leaves a really nice texture, I also found it picks up details in the light really nicely.

Description from Vallejo website- https://acrylicosvallejo.com/en/producto/hobby/diorama-effects-en/light-brown-thick-mud-26810/

Using a pallet knife, I applied the acrylic mud to the top section and sides of the base. Adding on multiple layers to allow extra detailing to look like it's years of muck built up. I think after doing several more layers this is going to look really gritty and nasty, just how I want it to look.